British Airways unveils their new Avios award chart (sort of)

I'm interested in IAD-LHR or IAD-LHR-FCO, so I assume I'm better off now. Although with the fuel surcharges, is biz still a good value?

It's not completely distance-based. LAX-SYD is a shorter flight than JFK-HKG, but the first one is 100K J and the second one is 70K J.

is it really possible that ba made a mistake (and realized it) when they sold what appears to be unprecedented levels of points to chase at too low of a rate?

@ Askia -- Without a companion certificate it's still pretty pricey given that you're paying 80,000 miles per person plus fuel surcharges/fees of roughly $800. With a companion certificate it's a lot more "palatable." Still, for a business class ticket it's a decent deal.

@ AK -- Argh, WTF?!

I found a few "improvements" being based in CVG using AA for a 31% decrease in points with the new chart:

1. CVG-MIA is 7500 avios points each way
2. Some stops in the Caribbean are 4500 points from MIA (T&C, USVI, etc....)
3. The max in the Caribbean is 30k now for me(as far south as Aruba)

Not anywhere near as great as the old chart, but I love the Caribbean and I'll be taking advantage of 24k flights, which can be come out to 3 cents per dollar depending on the season. This makes it much easier to take family and friends! Good luck with anyone who still has points with BA!

Lucky, second glance at the program led me to the conclusion that it is not a bad one at all. I suggest that you read the relevant thread in FT (AVIOS is live). So yes, we lost the long ones, but we now have some really good ones like dirt cheap destinations in the Caribbean. Quito is now 10K from MIA OW and not 20K etc. I think the average BA FF will think the BA program is better now.

I will miss the LAN flights and the great deals, but I'm moving on because I still have BA miles to burn!

I found a few "improvements" being based in CVG using AA for a 31% decrease in points with the new chart:

1. CVG-MIA is 7500 avios points each way
2. Some stops in the Caribbean are 4500 points from MIA (T&C, USVI, etc....)
3. The max in the Caribbean is 30k now for me(as far south as Aruba)

Not anywhere near as great as the old chart, but I love the Caribbean and I'll be taking advantage of 24k flights, which can be come out to ~3 cents per dollar depending on the season. This makes it much easier to take family and friends! Good luck with anyone who still has points with BA!

Also, they've eliminated free date/time changes on award tickets on ba.com. Now all award tickets must pay a fee. They knew we were all redeeming our miles early, so they got sneaky!

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/ecservicefeestbl/public/en_us

My parents are planning a trip from SEA with their companion pass to FCO/MXP.
West Coast in J is 65,000 in J, but I have no idea how that compares with previous redemption rates. I'm guessing if the East Coast-Europe went down to 60,000 then the West Coast isn't such a bad deal. Also, it appears that their stopover policy hasn't changed - which is good.

It's also annoying that now if you have a layover, your wholly domestic USA flight could be more than 25k miles round trip it was previously. Read: ATL-DFW-SFO is now 17.5k one way.

Pretty odd changes but some great new deals are shaping up. I just flew ITM-HND this week for 7500 miles which is now 4500. These flights in Japan are expensive and sell for $400 in Economy most of the time (one-way) - that's 9 cents per mile.

Similar deals for HND-PEK which costs $700 one-way and Avios has for 10k miles and $81.15.

Also IPC-PPT which sells for ~$1100 (one way) can be had for 12.5k Avios. Again almost 10 cents per mile.

NYC -> MIA for 7,500 Avios + $2.50 o/w on flight AA2035 for 11/19. Same flight on AA is 12,500 miles plus $2.50 plus $75 for booking within 21 days.

So far I have to concur with those saying that for long-haul, multi-stop flights the value proposition of BA miles has dropped, but for short-haul (and especially last-minute!) flights, it is excellent, and far better than AA (at least at first blush)

Are stopovers eliminated?
I read on Iberia that it is a cost per distance of each leg, so ORD-MIA-SJU would be priced first as ORD-MIA and then MIA-SJU, making it more expensive and eliminating stopovers?

I can't believe that AA will let BA take over short haul redemptions. BOS-DCA is only 399 miles OW, so 4500 Adios points coach OW, 9000 adios points business OW? Same with ORD_YYZ, LAX-LAS, JFK_YUL, so significant savings?

It also seems LHR-EUROPE 1,2,3 are also a good deal?

I know hotels are not a good deal, however some 4 star hotels are 15,000 points. I checked Delta and the same hotels are 48,000 miles. Florida to the Caribbean is a great deal.TPA/GCM 18,000 points.

ORD -> either NYC airport for 7500 avios (and a small booking fee) is pretty sweet. 15000pts for domestic round trips is not too shabby.

#womp RT IAD-LAX-HNL-LAX-IAD on AA went from 35,000 BA miles to now 50,000 Avios.

It seems that many of the point amount required has gone down, but the taxes have gone up! PHX PLS was 35,000 and $108; now 29,000 $122.08 (round trip).

Wow, I feel lucky (no pun intended) that I got through on the first try yesterday and waited less than 30 minutes they said I would.

Have you seen any info on how they will handle changes to tickets issued under the old system? If the old rules apply we may have a lot of flexibility. Yesterday I changed SIN-HKG-LAX to SIN-HKG-SFO on a different date. Although there is a new ticket number the BA and CX confirmation numbers stayed the same. So would they allow simple routing changes? It'd be nice to think so...

i keep getting these ridiculous email
from james hillier,i dont want to show loyalty -to assholes who devalue my
my loyalty by any percentage!
i have hundreds of thousands of points
that are now devalued - i am closing
out of this loyalty program
after all if we all stop using
them when they rip us off
-they will stop ripping us off
so vote with your credit card transfer
points!Vote with your travel (ie, get miles with partners like american-)when
and if you have to fly BA
put BA in bankrupcy

name AVIOS
translates to suck it in 99%
we just found another way to keep ourselves
in the 1 %!